At worst, he could hold people accountable tomorrow morning—or so he had thought before embracing his concubine.
Who could have known that a single lapse in vigilance would bring the enemy straight to the city walls?
How could they not hold them back?
How could the city gates, repaired and fortified over more than a decade, prove so utterly flimsy against the Panlong army?
"Shut the palace gates! Where are my generals?!"
The Xiji Kingdom had tried to rally, but they could mount no effective resistance. By daybreak, two of their generals had fallen in battle and two had been captured. The rest, seeing that all was lost, led their troops back into the palace city—the inner city—and barred the gates shut.
With the outer city breached, holding the inner city while awaiting reinforcements was still a viable strategy. The palace city gates were sturdier than the outer gates and laid out with even more defensive talisman arrays. Because the space was smaller, their men were more concentrated, making it far easier to defend.
Not to mention, the palace had ample stores of grain.
Yet even as the sun climbed in the east, no reinforcements arrived.
Where were the garrison troops stationed in the western suburbs and the southern river valley? Why hadn't they come to break the siege?
Otherwise, they could have pincered the invaders together with the royal troops, beating back this Panlong City army that had marched from afar!
No matter how furious Huyan Zhao grew, no one around him could offer an answer.
He crept cautiously up to the gate tower of the palace city and looked down from above. The fighting across the outer city had dwindled to scattered skirmishes, and Panlong City's main force had finished assembling, bearing down right beneath the palace gates.
Most of these soldiers had bloodstained armor, yet their upward gazes were as ravenous as wolves', sending a chill through the Xiji men atop the gate tower.
Above and below the palace gates, a rare silence fell.
The Vanguard General of Xiji stepped forward and bellowed, "Who's in command down there? Step forth and speak!"
The ranks below silently parted to make way, and a single rider trotted forward. The rhythmic clatter of hooves felt as though it were stepping right on everyone's heart.
The rider wore crimson armor and a red demon mask. She looked up at the wall, and standing in the back row, Huyan Zhao felt as though the demon-masked figure's gaze pierced straight through the Vanguard General to land directly on him.
The Vanguard General could not afford to lose momentum. "State your name, enemy commander!"
A chilling voice rang out in the heart of every Xiji man: "Panlong City. General Red."
It did not sound like ordinary human speech. The Vanguard General choked up. "Are you a monster?"
General Red did not waste words on him. Instead, she addressed the new king directly: "Huyan Zhao, the garrison battalions at the southern gate and the western suburbs have already been wiped out by my detachments. The reinforcements you are waiting for will not be coming."
General Nan Ke and the others had split off on the plains specifically for that task.
In recent years, the surrounding small nations had all heard of a newly risen general on the Panlong Wasteland—invincible, yet ruthless. The moment the Xiji defenders heard that she was the one who had come, their hearts sank like stones.
Moreover, she said their reinforcements were all destroyed and the palace was isolated. The men exchanged glances in mounting fear and dread.
Furious, Huyan Zhao took two steps forward, brushing off the Vanguard General's attempt to hold him back, and laughed loudly. "You think a couple of demonic words can break the morale of my army? General Red isn't all that much after all!"
General Red continued indifferently, "Surrender now, and I will not harm you. Put up a stubborn defense, and the inner city will be carpeted with corpses."
"General Red, my Xiji has no enmity or grudges with Panlong City! How dare you mount a sneak attack!" No honor whatsoever!
"You are in our way."
Huyan Zhao blinked, taken aback. "What?"
General Red explained with surprising patience, "We are returning to the Xiluo Kingdom, and you are blocking our path."
Listening from the rear ranks, He Lingchuan did not know whether to laugh or cry.
Panlong City and Xiji clearly had deep-seated grievances, yet General Red insisted on picking the most trivial excuse imaginable. Was she afraid she wouldn't infuriate Huyan Zhao to death?
"Y-You lot..." Rage rushed to Huyan Zhao's head, leaving him tongue-tied. Over such an absurd excuse, Panlong City was wiping out Xiji? It took him a long while before he managed to choke out, "Could you not have asked for passage?!"
General Red did not bother bantering further. "Surrender, or wait for death?" She then immediately added, "If you surrender the entire city, you may still live out your days in peace on Xiji soil. Commander Zhong, on behalf of our sovereign, permits you to be enfeoffed as a marquis south of the Gui River."
A Gui River flowed through south-central Xiji; taking the river as the boundary, the vast lands south of it accounted for roughly a third of the nation's territory. Zhong Shengguang's meaning was clear: if Huyan Zhao surrendered immediately, though he would lose his kingship, he could still retain a third of his former realm as a marquis.
The offer made Huyan Zhao scoff in bitter amusement. "Fine! Enfeoffing me on my own land—how generous of Panlong City!"
General Red did not argue with him. "Three days from now, I will ask again. By then, the promised land will only be south of Mount Tiao."
South of Mount Tiao was another third smaller than south of the Gui River.
With an ashen face, Huyan Zhao shouted to his guards, "Shoot her dead! Hurry, loose your arrows!"
At the Vanguard General's command, a shower of arrows rained down from the wall.
The ranks below were prepared and raised their shields in unison.
Bent on taking her head, more than half of the Xiji arrows were aimed at General Red. Watching the sky darken with arrows from behind, He Lingchuan broke into a cold sweat on her behalf.
In warfare on this scale, there was only so much an individual could do.
Yet General Red did not dodge or parry, nor did she even raise her spear.
The dense swarm of arrows had all been aimed true, yet for some reason, every single one veered off course. With sharp whistles, they struck the dirt around her until the ground looked like a hornet's nest. It appeared spectacular, but in truth, the closest arrow landed three feet away from her.
The Vanguard General's eyes narrowed. He seized a heavy war bow himself. "Shoot again!"
Another rain of arrows poured down, with the Vanguard General's arrows among them, loosed two in rapid succession.
One after the other.
He suspected General Red was using some trickery or light-bending sorcery that threw off their aim.
By releasing those two successive arrows, the Vanguard General intended to calculate the margin of error.
Naturally, the Panlong troops below would not just stand by and take it; they retaliated with their own volleys.
However, shooting upward put them at a natural disadvantage, and the enemy was sheltered behind the battlements.
General Red was in no hurry. Turning her mount, she let the horse trot back.
Her orders were to surround and wear them down; kill anyone who came out!
Atop the wall, the Vanguard General shot two more arrows. They still went wide, but having calculated the angle, he nocked another arrow.
Yet in that briefest window, General Red casually plucked a fletched arrow from a nearby soldier's shield, twisted in her saddle, and hurled it backhand like a bolt of lightning!
The arrow flew too fast for the naked eye to track, without making a sound, and plunged straight into the Vanguard General's right eye.
In through the front and out through the back, it burst into a blossom of blood.
Only then did the men beside him hear a faint whistle as the air was sliced open.
Terrified, Huyan Zhao scrambled back three large steps, not daring to go near the parapet again.
The Vanguard General was strong enough to tear tigers and leopards apart with his bare hands, so how had this ghost-masked figure blown out his eye with a casual flick of the wrist?
She had not even used a bow!
General Red dusted off her hands and commanded, "Don't let a single one out."
Leaving the Xiji monarch stranded atop the gate, she went off to deploy troops and continue hunting down the stragglers and scattered remnants inside the city.
The Panlong army's assault had been hurried; though struck with thunderous momentum, the victory remained rough around the edges. Now she had to reweave the net, systematically wiping out the fish that had slipped through and any hostile factions lurking in the shadows.
She also dispatched units to seize vital strongholds such as granaries, armories, and horse paddocks, securing supplies.
At the same time, General Red had notices posted to reassure the populace, strictly separating commoners from officials and soldiers, and instituted military rationing across the entire city.
Huyan Zhao and his men had been forced to bar the palace gates that morning, yet the fighting throughout the Xiji capital dragged on until the evening of the following day. Many scattered Xiji soldiers had lost contact with the main body during the chaos and had not retreated into the royal palace in time; consequently, they regrouped throughout the outer city, putting up stubborn resistance in small pockets through piecemeal street-fighting.
They all sought to join forces and rush to the king's rescue.
The Gale Army elites under General Red's command, including He Lingchuan, clamped onto them like a pack of wolves.
Only now did it become apparent how remarkably flexible General Red's tactics were, often anticipating the enemy's every move. The traps she laid seemed to draw the enemy in, each vying to stumble into them first.
Street fighting was also an entirely new experience for He Lingchuan. Clashing in close quarters along narrow alleys tested martial skill as much as luck. After all, one never knew where an enemy might pop out from, or what underhanded trick they might use.
He Lingchuan watched as a Gale soldier made a single misstep and was blown high into the air by the enemy; before the man even hit the ground, his upper torso had severed cleanly from his waist and legs.
He was a member of Meng Shan's squad.
At the sight, Meng Shan roared, charging forward like a rampaging bull and smashing right through a two-foot-thick earthen wall. The enemies behind it had no time to flee; he snapped one's neck, then grabbed the other by the legs and slammed him against a pillar three times until brain matter burst out.
Red and white fluid splattered across his face, but Meng Shan did not even bother wiping it off. Turning his head, he caught sight of He Lingchuan standing several zhang away and immediately bellowed, "Thirty-three and thirty-five!"
"Where's thirty-four? Did you eat it?" Did this fellow genuinely not know how to count? He Lingchuan flashed him a grin. "And by the way, I've already taken out thirty-nine!"
His methods were not as brutal as Meng Shan's, but they were efficient, stripping the enemies of their ability to fight.
Leaving those words behind, He Lingchuan turned and walked off, leaving Meng Shan fuming as he roared at his squad mates, "What are you standing around for? Drag these gutless rats out and butcher them!"
Just then, several silhouettes stepped out from behind a doorway with their hands raised. "Don't kill us, don't kill us! We surrender!"
"One, two, three, four!" Meng Shan beamed and asked his teammate, "Four surrendered, so how many have we taken down now?"
"Thirty-eight," the teammate answered warily. "Still one behind Broken Saber's squad."
"Huh?"
Meng Shan's grin vanished instantly.
He Lingchuan vaulted over the rubble and saw the gravely wounded member of Meng Shan's squad lying on the ground.
Everything below his waist was gone, his blood and internal organs spilled across the dirt.
Such a wound was beyond help.
Yet he was still alive. Looking at He Lingchuan, he reached out a trembling hand with great effort.
He Lingchuan took two quick strides, grasped it firmly, and said in a low, steady voice,
"I'm here. We're all here."
Willow and the others walked over as well.
They all recognized this man. Not long ago, he had toasted He Lingchuan at the restaurant. Word was that his family's house had been upgraded this year, and he had a lovely younger sister.
Meng Shan's squad came rushing over as well. Seeing their comrade in such a wretched state, their expressions darkened just as heavily.
The wounded soldier murmured something, his voice faint. He Lingchuan leaned close to his ear and barely caught two words:
"...Go home..."
Chapter 429